Low-maintenance tips for growing garden phlox

In midsummer, when many flowering plants go dormant and butterflies have a harder time finding nectar, garden phlox emerges and becomes a meeting place for winged creatures. Here are some tips to help you grow the low-maintenance flower in your outdoor space.

• A North American native, garden phlox are tall, upright plants that inhabit woodland clearings near streams and rivers.
• Cultivars have been developed for garden performance that bloom more heavily than the wild species. These stand one to 1.5 metres (three to five feet) tall and produce rounded flower clusters composed of dozens of 1.3-centimetre-wide (0.75-inch-wide) fragrant pink, white, lavender and rose blossoms.
• The oval leaves are medium green but tend to be a bit darker when plants are well fed and grown in partial shade.
• Garden phlox likes plenty of sun and fresh air around its top growth but wants its roots to be cool and moist.
• In cold climates grow garden phlox in sun and keep it well mulched at all times.
• Where summers are hot, garden phlox will bloom much stronger and longer if the plants are shaded in the afternoon and topped with an organic mulch.

• Plant breeders have had great success coaxing beautiful colours out of pink-blooming ancestral strains, resulting in cultivars, such as 'Franz Schubert', that has soft lilac flowers, each accented by a white centre. Flowers in red shades are available, as are some varieties with variegated foliage, but these unusual types tend to be smaller and less vigorous than the white-, pink- or lavender-blooming cultivars.
• In recent years the nursery industry has promoted garden phlox with good resistance to powdery mildew, a fungal disease that strikes when days are warm and humid and nights are cool, causing unsightly white patches on leaves but not killing the plants.
• Cultivars with superior mildew resistance include pure white 'David', pure pink 'Robert Poore' and 'Eva Cullum', which bears pink flowers with an almost red central eye.
• In areas prone to powdery mildew, thin plants to increase air circulation and avoid wetting the leaves when irrigating to help prevent the disease.
• Insect pests rarely visit phlox, but sap-sucking spider mites may give leaves a pale, stippled appearance. They are most active during droughts and can be eradicated by hosing off foliage early in the day so that it dries before evening, when mildew problems are likely to develop.
• If leaves show holes left by beetlelike phlox bugs or other chewing pests, spray plants with a botanical insecticide as directed on the label.

• Set out purchased plants in early spring. Sprinkle compost or other organic matter into each planting hole and set the plants so that the roots are covered with 2.5 centimetres (one inch) of soil topped by another five centimetres (two inches) of organic mulch.
• Keep the roots evenly moist during the first summer after planting.
• To prolong flowering for many weeks, snip off old flower clusters to encourage new buds to form. Cut stems back close to the ground in winter, after plants become dormant.
• Fertilize garden phlox in spring with an organic or controlled-release fertilizer.
• Every three years, or when plants become crowded, dig up the clump in early spring, separate individual plants and replant them after renewing the site by digging in organic matter, such as compost.

Garden phlox is a fragrant and colourful plant that compliments any outdoor space. Consider these tips and start growing garden phlox today!